2.

Sources of water
supply – II:
groundwater
Sudha Goel
Dept. of Civil Eng., IITKgp
Kharagpur 721 302

1
 Groundwater

Water that has percolated downward from the ground
surface through the soil and sub-surface rocks (HH)

Freshwater is 3% of the total water on the planet
 GW comprises half of that (Table 5.1) at 1.7 %

Often, considered a non-renewable resource
 ‘Mining’ of GW when there is no likelihood of its replenishment

Pollution of GW resources is harder to mitigate than
pollution of SW resources
 Long-term effects of pollution (velocity of GW vs. velocity of
SW)
 Treatment Costs: Harder to pump and treat

HH, GMM 2
 Differences between GW (mainly deep aquifers) and
Surface Water (or shallow GWs)
Water quality parameter Deep Ground water Surface water
Dissolved oxygen Lower Higher
Other gases like carbon Higher Lower
dioxide and hydrogen sulfide
Microbes Lower Higher
Turbidity Lower Higher
Cations like Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn Higher Lower
Anions like F, As, etc Higher Lower
Total dissolved solids Generally higher Lower
Flow velocity Extremely low High
Residence time Long, order of 100s of ≤1 year
years in some cases
Self-purification capacity None Up to a limit
Remediation Difficult and expensive Not as difficult or expensive
3
 Groundwater
• Unsaturated zone (vadose
zone): voids between the soil
particles contain both air and
water
• not usable, not possible to
draw (pump)
• sustains vegetation
• Saturated zone: all voids are
filled with water
• Capillary fringe: transition
zone between the first two
• water rises from saturated
to unsaturated zone by
capillary action

GMM 4
 Groundwater

GMM 5
 Gravity spring

6
KND
 Artesian spring

7
KND
 Groundwater

Aquifer: saturated geologic layer that is permeable enough for
water to flow through easily
 Confined: occurs when water flows through two confining layers
(aquicludes or aquitards)

Water is at >= atmospheric pressure and can rise to a level
higher than the water table

Natural artesian wells – can flow without pumping
 Unconfined: it sits atop a confining layer and the upper surface
is the water table

Water is under atmospheric pressure and defines the water
table level; wells in this strata are gravity wells

Aquiclude or aquitard: relatively impermeable layer that restricts
the movement of GW

Water table: level of water in wells drilled in unconfined aquifer

Potentiometric surface (or peizometric surface): line drawn at the
level to which water rises in an artesian well

GMM 8
 Groundwater

Porosity (η): ratio of void volume to total volume
 Determines amount of water stored in aquifer
 Porosity is not always proportional to hydraulic conductivity or
permeability
 Strictly speaking, porosity is independent of grain size if
particles are assumed to be perfect spheres (Graton and Fraser,
1935).

In reality, media packing or porosity depends on shape of particles
(see Table 5.12)

Specific yield or effective porosity: volume of water that can be
drained from an unconfined aquifer
 Particle size determines permeability and specific yield
 Smaller particle size leads to greater surface tension and lower
permeability or specific yield

Storage coefficient: volume of water that can be drained from a
confined aquifer

Hydraulic gradient: slope of the water table (unconfined aquifer) or
piezometric surface (confined aquifer) = dh/dL

GW flows downgradient!
GMM 9
 10
Graton and Fraser, 1935
 RANGE OF VALUES FOR DIFFERENT AQUIFER MATERIALS
(MASTERS, 1998) (FREEZE & CHERRY, 1979)

Hydraulic Porosity, % Specific yield

conductivity, m/s (%)

Gravel 10-3 to 1 25 to 40 22

Clean sand 10-6 to 10-2 25 to 50 25

Silt or clay 10-9 to 10-5 35 to 50 3

Sandstone 10-10 to 10-6 5 to 30 8

Limestone, dolomite 10-9 to 10-6 0 to 20 2

Shale 10-13 to 10-10 0 to 10 2

11
 GW flow velocity

Darcy’s law: Q (m3/d) = KA dh/dL
K = hydraulic conductivity (coeff of permeability),
m/d
A = c/s area, m2

Darcy velocity v = Q/A = K dh/dL

Real GW velocities (thro’ tortuous flow paths) >>
Darcy velocity

Average linear velocity, v’ = v/η

GMM 12
 Groundwater

Generally MSL

GMM 13
 Hydraulic conductivity, K

K depends on location and direction of flow

Homogeneous: same K throughout the aquifer

Heterogeneous: K value changes with location
in aquifer

Isotropic: K is constant regardless of flow
direction

Anisotropic: K depends on direction of flow

GMM 14
 Cone of depression

GMM 15
 Cone of depression

GMM 16
Sources of GW pollution

Underground storage tanks (LUSTs)

Septic systems/ tanks

Landfills

Fertilizer application

Large industrial facilities

Hazardous waste sites

Surface impoundments

Animal feedlots

Storage tanks (above ground)

Agricultural chemicals processing and handling facilities

Salt water intrusion

Pipelines and sewers

Mining and mine drainage

Urban runoff

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 Contaminant transport in GW

Diffusion: in response to a concentration
gradient

Dispersion: due to differences in flow velocities
of individual unit volumes (deviations from ideal
laminar flow conditions)

Hydrodynamic dispersion: dispersion + diffusion;
results in the spreading out of a plume in all 3 dir
(smearing of plume boundaries)
 As flow conditions approach ideal PF conditions,
effects of hydrodynamic dispersion are reduced

Smearing of plume boundary is reduced
GMM 18
 Longitudinal dispersion in 1 dir in a column
GMM
19
Some dispersion does occur in the 2 dir normal to flow
GMM
20
 Retardation

Contaminant may or may not flow at the same velocity as ground
water

Sorption (absorption and adsorption) of contaminants will retard
their velocity relative to water

Retardation factor, R defined below
 For Chloride = conservative tracer; R=1
 For contaminants like PCE, CTET, DCB, HCE (Figure 5.37)

R>>1

R is not always constant, appears to increase over time until SS

values are reached (Figure 5.38)
 Important implications for pump and treat method of GW remediation

GMM
21
GMM
22
GMM
23
 Types of wells

Nature of flow
 Gravity wells (under atm pressure) or pressure wells
(artesian or flowing)
 Shallow wells (unconfined aquifers) or deep wells (confined
aquifers)

Type of construction
 Dug wells and hand pumps
 Driven well
 Sunk wells

Tube wells: drilled or bored wells
 Percussion drilling
 Core drilling
 Rotary drilling
KND 24
KND 25
KND 26
KND 27
KND 28
 Earth Augers for constructing wells
Fig. 3. Earth Fig. 3. Earth Fig. 3. Earth
Fig. 3. Earth
augers. (a) augers. (c) augers. (d)
augers. (b)
cylindrical bucket helical auger tubular auger
two-bladed
auger
auger

29
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